LOCAL BUSINESS
Polymer award from state
Ohio’s Third Frontier Commission has awarded a $3 million award to Kent State University in its role overseeing a project involving polymers and liquid crystals and four local companies: Kent Displays Inc., AlphaMicron Inc. and Crystal Diagnostics Inc., all of Kent, and Akron Polymer System Inc. of Akron.
The university said it “will work with these companies to push their core products to the next level of commercial success within three to five years.”
AlphaMicron’s work includes rearview mirrors that automatically dim to reduce glare; Kent Displays developed the paperless Boogie Board writing tablet, and Crystal Diagnostics created a system that uses liquid crystals to help quickly detect potentially deadly foodborne pathogens in meats, produce and other products.
EARNINGS
Burger King income up
Burger King Worldwide Inc., which began trading publicly again in June, reported net income of $48.2 million, or 14 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30. That’s up from $30.2 million in the year-ago period, when the company was privately held.
Removing stock-based compensation expense and other items, earnings were 17 cents per share.
Revenue dropped 9 percent to $540.8 million from $595.4 million. But Burger King said that revenue at locations open at least a year — a key gauge of a retailer’s health — climbed 4.4 percent.
EMPLOYMENT
Private payrolls show hike
Companies in the U.S. added more workers than projected in July, indicating the job market was holding up entering the second half of the year, a private report based on payrolls showed.
The 163,000 increase in employment followed a revised 172,000 gain the prior month, ADP Employer Services said. The median estimate of 38 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for an advance of 120,000.
LEGAL
Poker settlements reached
Settlement deals reached between federal prosecutors and three Internet poker companies call for more than a half billion dollars to be paid to the government, enabling U.S. poker players to recover more than $160 million lost when the companies shut down U.S. operations last year, authorities said.
Settlements were reached with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. A separate agreement between the government and a third company, Absolute Poker, was pending.
PokerStars said in a release that it will pay the government $547 million over three years with the money being used in part to reimburse former U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker. The company also said that $184 million representing outstanding balances owed to non-U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker will be made available in a segregated bank account that can be accessed with no restrictions on withdrawals. PokerStars said it has acquired the assets of Full Tilt Poker.
The U.S. operations of the companies were shut down when the government last year brought criminal charges against various poker company executives and those who helped the companies process money.
HOME FORECLOSURE
No mortgage relief
After a lengthy review, a key federal regulator said he would not allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lower the amount some underwater homeowners owe on their mortgages despite new financial incentives from the Obama administration.
Detailed analysis has determined that principal reductions would cost taxpayers money and would not clearly improve the ability of homeowners to avoid foreclosure, said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the housing finance giants that were seized by the government in 2008 as they teetered on the brink of failure.
The Obama administration, Democratic officials and housing advocates have been pressuring DeMarco to allow Fannie and Freddie to lower the principal for underwater homeowners as a way of reducing foreclosures. Fannie and Freddie own or back about 60 percent of all mortgages. Some, including California Attorney General Kamala Harris, have called for Obama to fire DeMarco because of his refusal to allow Fannie and Freddie to reduce principal.
But DeMarco has steadfastly refused out of concern that it would increase the cost of the taxpayer bailouts of Fannie and Freddie. As of June 20, taxpayers have pumped $188 billion into the two companies to keep them afloat. The companies have paid about $46 billion in dividends back to the Treasury Department in exchange for that assistance, leaving taxpayers on the hook for about $42 billion.
Compiled from staff and wire reports